Take my iPad, not my trackpants
The list of what not to bring (or wear) onboard just keeps growing.
It’s been a bad couple of weeks, especially if you like to make yourself at home on a long-haul flight with comfy clothes and electronic devices.
In a one-two hit for those who try to make cattle class as bearable as possible, first the United States and British authorities came for any smart device larger than an old iPhone in cabin baggage on flights from certain Middle Eastern airports and then US airline United came for our choice of pants to wear onboard!
So if you’re a leggings-loving Kindle user on a United Kingdom or US bound flight from certain Middle Eastern countries you might be feeling victimised, as the safety and onboard etiquette standards are again ratcheted up. The electronic device ban, spearheaded by President Donald Trump’s Transportation Safety Administration officials, was influenced by incidents such as a mid-air explosion on a flight from Mogadishu, Somalia, thought to have come from an explosive filled laptop.
Qatar Airways was quick to respond to keep business passengers happy and will supply them with laptops to use in flight while their own are stored in the hold. ‘‘You can take away my 500ml water bottle and my iPad, but you’ll never get my activewear!’’
At the other end of the innovative, intelligent and appropriate reaction scale for airlines was United Airlines. United’s leggings-gate, whereby a gate agent refused boarding for two young women until they had changed out of their skin-tight activewear blew up on Twitter with accusations of sexism by the United staffer.
It was later revealed these two lycra lovers were flying using heavily discounted tickets for the airline staff’s family and friends and so had to meet minimum dress standards. Unlike the rest of us, these so-called ‘‘nonrevenue’’ passengers were banned from wearing such clothing as: sleepwear, midriff-showing tops, ripped jeans, lace, jandals and, yes ‘‘form-fitting lycra or spandex tops, pants or dresses’’. Killjoys.
Perhaps the gate agent was powertripping, like a bouncer at the hottest club in town . Maybe the United staffer was a new member of the Tights Are Not Pants group and this was some hazing ritual.
They may have even been misled by the activewear branding and thought